Ed Galbraith
(mentioned) (presumed) |Last Appearance = |gallery = Ed |ElCamino Appearance = Yes }} Ed Galbraith, also referred to as the Disappearer, is a vacuum cleaner repairman and salesman who also offers the clandestine service of taking people (mostly criminals) and giving them new lives and identities. History Background Information Little is known of Ed's past. He became a vacuum cleaner repairman and salesman at one point in his life, operating a legitimate, successful business. He at one point began offering a service of giving wanted fugitives and criminals a new life and identity to help them evade the police by extracting them to new locations across the United States. This suggests that he has a possible police or military background given the proficiency of his services. At some point his services became known to criminal lawyer Saul Goodman who offered Ed's services to some of his clients, though Saul himself never met Ed nor knew his real name. Better Call Saul Season 5 to be added. Breaking Bad Season 4 Ed is first alluded to by Saul as a last-resort option when Walt feels threatened by Gus. Later, once Walt has learned that Gus plans to kill Hank, he arranges for Ed to collect him and his family once Saul has informed the DEA of the threat. The disappearing falls through since Walt does not have sufficient money to pay for the services. Season 5 After Walter White asks Jesse Pinkman to get out of town, Saul Goodman arranges for him to be disappeared. As Ed (who is not shown) pulls up to Jesse in his red van, Jesse at that moment realizes that Walt poisoned Brock Cantillo and leaves. Following Hank Schrader & Steven Gomez's deaths at the hands of Jack's White Supremacist Gang and leaving his family, Walt meets Ed to start his new life. Shortly after he takes Walt, Saul has decided to start a new life as well and he takes Saul to his store, creating a new identity for Saul with a Nebraska drivers license. A few days after Saul's arrival, he tells him that he is ready to start a new life and sets him off as Walt remains in the bunker. He comes back ready for Walt and takes him to New Hampshire in the tank of a propane delivery truck. At a cabin in New Hampshire, he tells Walt he cannot leave the property since he will inevitably be caught and makes it clear that if he discovers that Walt has left for any reason, he will not return and Walt will be on his own. Ed also tells Walt that he will come back once a month to provide him with necessities. He comes back several times throughout the winter and stocks Walt with newspapers from Albuquerque, nutrition drinks, glasses, a chemo-therapy kit, and other supplies. He also brings Walt newspapers and has been keeping tabs on his family and keeps him posted about his wife's trial. After Walt chose to leave New Hampshire, Ed likely quickly discovered that Walt left his cabin and therefore cut off all connections with Walt. He later learned of his death on the news. El Camino After escaping from the White Supremacist Compound, Jesse Pinkman tracks down Ed's shop to enlist his services. Once Ed is done with a customer, Jesse awkwardly tries to remember the passphrase before pulling $125,000 out of the bag of Todd Alquist's drug money he'd recovered. Ed claims to have no idea what Jesse is talking about and Jesse tries to get Ed to admit that he's "the guy," showing Ed that he's not wearing a wire or carrying a gun. With Ed refusing to acknowledge Jesse's demands, Jesse states that he's ninety-six percent sure that Ed is who he's looking for, having recognized Ed's van from the aborted pickup. Jesse apologizes for breaking Ed's rules and not going with him that day, stating that Ed will never know how sorry Jesse is that he missed that pickup and he begs Ed to help him. Taking pity on Jesse, Ed tells him that Jesse owes him $125,000 for the first pickup and will have to pay him another $125,000 if he wants Ed to help him this time. Jesse accepts the deal, but discovers that combining all of his remaining cash together still leaves him $1,800 short. Ed gives Jesse back all of his money and offers his advice, but makes it clear that he will not help Jesse without full payment. Jesse tries to earn Ed's sympathy by telling him about his captivity, but Ed simply says that if he wants to tug on people's heartstrings, to try his luck with the police. In Ed's eyes, Jesse, Walt and Saul Goodman all made their own luck. With Jesse refusing to leave, Ed calls the police, forcing Jesse to flee when they actually show up. However, Ed provides them with a false description and lies about where Jesse headed instead of turning him in. Calling the store phone once the cops are gone, Jesse makes sure that with Ed that a deal is a deal and when Ed confirms it, Jesse promises to get Ed the rest of his money. After Jesse gets the needed money, Ed transports him in the back of a van to Alaska. Upon arrival, Ed drills Jesse in his new identity and leaves him a car and directions to the nearest town. Jesse hands Ed a letter for Brock Cantillo that Ed promises to mail when he's in Mexico City in a month after reading through it. Ed comments that "not many of us get a chance to start fresh" and wishes Jesse luck in his new life. Ed watches as Jesse drives off before leaving himself. Relationship with Walt Walt is a particularly special case for Ed. Normally, once he has set his clients up in their new surroundings he never sees them again. Since Walt is a unique client due to being the subject of a nationwide manhunt and dying from cancer, Ed makes supply trips and helps him perform his chemo-therapy. He tries to maintain a purely professional relationship with Walt, always referring to him as "Mr. Lambert" and only staying to play cards with him for an extra hour in exchange for $10,000. Walt initially did not seem to like Ed much and was disgusted that he had to pay him so much money to bring him supplies, however over time Walt appeared to enjoy Ed coming to bring him supplies (as he was the only human contact Walt had during his time hiding) and even trusted Ed with keeping tabs on his family for him. Walt nearly also considered trusting Ed with the task of giving his family his remaining money after his inevitable death, though found that even if Ed agreed to do it, he would not believe him. Ed later tells Jesse Pinkman that he thinks Jesse, Walt and Saul Goodman all made their own luck. Relationship with Jesse Like with Walt, Jesse is a particularly special client for Ed. After enlisting Ed's services the first time, Jesse backed out at the last minute after realizing that Walt poisoned Brock Cantillo. Jesse would later state that Ed would never know how sorry he was to have missed that pickup. During both the aborted pickup and the successful one, Jesse broke several of the strict rules Ed operates by, something Ed let slide which is indicated to be highly unusual for him. After being rescued by Walt from the White Supremacist Compound, Jesse sought out Ed's services again, but couldn't remember the correct passphrase, instead awkwardly insisting that Ed was "the guy," using Ed's van from the first pickup as proof. Though it was against Ed's rules of dealing with his clients, he appeared to take enough pity on Jesse to deal with him anyway. Ed insisted on being paid for both pickups and refused to deal with Jesse when he was $1,800 short, going so far as to call the police when Jesse refused to leave. Despite feeling that Jesse owed him for at least the first pickup, Ed still returned all of his money when Jesse couldn't come up with the second half and gave him advice on how to run on his own. When the police actually did show up, Ed misdirected them and gave a false description rather than giving Jesse up and assured Jesse that he would keep his end of the deal if Jesse could pay him. Despite claiming to have no sympathy for Jesse when he tried to use the story of his captivity to motivate Ed to help, Ed did show moments where he seemed somewhat sympathetic such as agreeing to deal with Jesse in the first place and then after he read Jesse's letter to Brock. Without asking for anything in return, unlike how Ed made Walt pay each time he provided an additional service, Ed promised to ensure the letter would be delivered and asked if Jesse wanted to contact anyone else, suggesting that Ed would've helped him send another letter if he had it. When they parted ways, Ed seemed happy that Jesse would get a fresh start, noting how rare it was that someone like them got one. This suggests that on some level, unlike his purely professional relationship with Walt, Ed developed something of a more personal one with the young man though he rarely let it show and did not let it affect how he operated overall in their professional dealings. Appearances ''Breaking Bad Trivia *Ed is one of only two characters that appears in ''Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, the second being Mike Ehrmantraut. Jimmy/Saul and Lydia (indirectly) get mentioned in El Camino, but do not appear. **As an actor, Simon Drobik appears in all three both in different roles *Ed drives a: **1991 Toyota Previa **1973 Chevrolet C-Series propane tanker **2011 Jeep Wrangler **2004 Ford E-Series *The client has to ask for a dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract® 60 Pressure Pro™ to get in contact with him. **The Hoover Max Extract® 60 Pressure Pro™ is a real Hoover model,Hoover® Max Extract® Pressure Pro™ Carpet Deep Cleaner product page though it does not have a dust filter. **When Jesse Pinkman comes in, he can't remember what to ask for resulting in Ed directing him to the Hoover vacuums until Jesse manages to clear things up. *Despite being mentioned in several previous episodes, Ed is not seen in person until . In the episode , his face is not visible as he comes to pick up Jesse in his 1991 Toyota Previa nor is it visible when he picks up Walt in . *The new identities Ed supplies are shown to stand up to scrutiny, including a check of the social security numbers. Saul tells Walt that Ed gives his clients "new everything" and no one would ever be able to trace him. *It appears that Ed tries to hide his own identity from the people he provides his services to in the event they are ever found or arrested as Saul, who had presumably known about Ed for years and referred clients to his services does not even know his real name as revealed in "Crawl Space" and neither Walt, Saul or Jesse ever refer to Ed by his name. Ed however did announce his full name in "El Camino" while phoning the police on Jesse, making Jesse his only known client to know his real name. *Ed is stated to have a series of strict rules regarding his services, several of which Jesse Pinkman has broken. When calling Ed in , Saul confirms that Jesse knows and understands the rules. Jesse later admits in that he knows he broke Ed's rules. Ed's rules as seen in , , and are: **He must be contacted through his special passphrase though its unclear if it has to be done just over the phone or can be done in person as well. When Saul Goodman gave Walt instructions he said to leave a message and Ed would call back within five minutes. When calling for Jesse, Saul talked directly to Ed. Without the passphrase, Ed refuses to acknowledge that he is the person the client is looking for. **His fee is $125,000 in cash per person for the deluxe service. The amount is non-negotiable and without the full fee, Ed will only offer advice if the client is on the run and won't otherwise lift a finger to help. **He works fast so the client must be ready to go before they call to arrange a pickup after which Ed will put them up in a safe house until everything is settled. **He will not take anyone who is high at the time of pickup and possibly not if they have drugs on them. **The person (or persons) being picked up must be alone or Ed won't take them. **Ed is always "Punctual with a capital P." **When supplying his clients with their new identity, Ed, depending on the severity of the situation they are escaping from, sometimes allows them their choice of where he will take them to begin their new life as in Saul confirmed that Jesse would have a say in where he would go and Ed would later in take him to Alaska at his request. However Ed himself chose Nebraska as the location where he would take Saul, likely due to his face being too well known. It is unknown if it was Walt's request to go to New Hampshire though it likely wasn't due to him being too hot a client (and also dying from cancer) to be left on his own in public and Ed chose his location specifically to hide him and bring him supplies covertly. **Ed refuses to do anything to help a client that risks exposure or danger for himself. When dealing with Walter White, he tells Walter that he must not leave the property or Ed will stop dealing with him as Walt's leaving risks exposure for them both. He also refuses to take any of Jesse's money when he can't complete the deal as he feels it will end badly for them both. When Jesse tries to use this rule against him, Ed calls the police which Jesse sees as a bluff initially as it risks exposure for Ed, but it is not a bluff. However, Ed does not expose Jesse who has left and lies to the police. **With Ed, a deal is a deal and his word is his bond. If a client makes a deal with him, as long as he is paid, he will honor the deal to the best of his ability. **Ed requires that the client pay for any previous aborted pickups if they seek his services again. **Ed typically requires $10,000 more each time he performs an additional service for his clients as seen with Ed forcing Walt to pay him each time he brings supplies and to spend an hour playing cards with him. This rule appears to be more flexible however as Ed agrees to deliver Jesse's letter to Brock Cantillo without requesting anything in return. It is possible Ed did not demand additional payment from Jesse due to the fact that, unlike Walt, he would never see him again or simply as a gesture of kindness. Ed did remain cautious as he did not touch the letter without gloves as to not leave his fingerprints, read it to ensure it revealed no details about Jesse's location and he asked Jesse to seal the letter as to not leave his own DNA on the letter either. He also chose to mail it from a faraway location from Albuquerque in Mexico City, where he would be traveling to in order to prevent the letter from being traced back to him and possibly to mislead the police on Jesse's whereabouts as well. *Ed is indicated to use inconspicuous commercial vehicles to transport his clients. He transported Walter White to New Hampshire in the back of a propane tanker and Jesse Pinkman to Alaska in a secret compartment the back of a moving van with a space heater set up to keep Jesse warm on the trip and a battery-powered lantern to see by. The rear of the moving van was filled with various boxes to complete the ruse, at least one of which can be seen with the label Kitchen on it. *Despite his uncompromising demeanor with his clients in his business as a disappearer, Ed appears to be less harsh and more sympathetic in his day to day life. In "El Camino," Ed talked a woman into having him repair her old vacuum which was cheaper for her rather than buying a new one after she discussed money concerns. This act was less profitable for him and a more sympathetic and cheaper choice for the customer. *Ed is played by Robert Forster who, coincidentally, sold vacuum cleaners door to door for a living before becoming an actor. *Ed's name is not revealed on screen, but in the description of the episode, Granite State on AMC's website. **His full name is revealed on screen in El Camino when he calls the police on Jesse. *There is a fan theory that "Ed" is really Max Cherry from Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film, Jackie Brown. Max Cherry was a bailbondsman and possibly a former cop. *Robert Forster's appearance as Ed in El Camino was one of his final acting appearance as he died of brain cancer on the same day that the movie was released. His final appearance is set to be in Season 5 of Better Call Saul. Notes es:Ed Category:Breaking Bad characters Category:Status: Alive Category:Season 5B characters (Breaking Bad) Category:Saul Goodman's associates Category:Business people Category:Criminals Category:Characters from Breaking Bad in El Camino Category:Main characters (El Camino) Category:Antagonists (El Camino) Category:Season 5 characters (Better Call Saul) Category:Characters from Breaking Bad in Better Call Saul